Schmitt J, et al. - This study involves a comparison between children with atopic dermatitis (AD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), comorbid AD/ADHD, and age-matched healthy controls, in terms of their sociodemographic, clinical, and psychosocial characteristics. Furthermore, aspects of AD related to ADHD symptoms were also investigated. According to findings, increased levels of ADHD symptoms were exhibited by children with AD, even if the clinical diagnosis of ADHD was excluded.

Methods

• Researchers applied a factorial design to investigate 4 groups of children age 6 to 12 years: AD-only (i.e. without ADHD), ADHD-only (i.e. without AD), AD+ADHD, healthy controls (HC; i.e. no AD/no ADHD).
• They used validated instruments to compare groups in terms of ADHD symptoms and other behavioural problems, quality of life, parenting stress, and sleeping problems.
• They assessed children with AD-only for clinical signs (objective SCORAD), symptoms (POEM, VAS pruritus, VAS sleeping problems), and previous treatment of AD in order to, ultimately, explore disease patterns related to ADHD symptoms.

Results

• Findings demonstrated significantly increased behavioural problems and decreased quality of life in children with AD-only (n=42), ADHD-only (n=34) and comorbid AD+ADHD (n=31), compared to HC (n=47).
• Researchers observed that children with AD-only versus HC had significantly higher levels of ADHD symptoms.
• In addition, they noted a significant association of previous use of antihistamines with increased ADHD symptoms (OR 1.88; 95%-CI 1.04-3.39) in children with AD-only.
• Data reported that current clinical signs and AD-symptoms were unrelated to the level of ADHD symptoms.